Ireland police arrest anti-immigration protesters after violent clash News
Boardwalk.Koi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ireland police arrest anti-immigration protesters after violent clash

Irish police arrested 19 people during an anti-immigration protest in Dublin on Monday. 15 of the protesters, 13 men and two women, later appeared at the Criminal Courts of Justice for a special sitting and were charged with public order offences under Section 6 and Section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994.

Crime Correspondent Paul Healy reported that violent protests occurred in the suburb of Coolock in northern Dublin in the early Monday afternoon. Malahide Road in the suburb was crowded with protesters and officers from all over Dublin were ordered to immediately go to the former Crowns Paints site to stop a second Dublin riot from occurring. When Irish police (called An Garda Síochána) arrived, several roads were closed and the gardaí circled the area armed with shields and helicopters approached from the sky to monitor the situation. The Dublin Fire Brigade also put up a statement on X (formerly Twitter) reporting closed roads and dealing with fires.

On the scene, the Garda Public Order Unit was attacked by some protesters who lunged missiles at them and set fire to a JCB digger and wheelie bins. Several of the protesters were arrested on the spot with others pepper sprayed. A security guard at the former Crowns Paints site had been injured during the protest and removed from the scene with a stretcher and brought to an ambulance.

A protest campsite was set up in March to stop workers from renovating the area in Coolock. The former Crowns Paints site was to be redeveloped to house International Protection Applicants in Dublin. Protesters had put up shacks with slogans and banners saying ‘Coolock Says No’ and for the past number of months, the protestors have disturbed and blocked traffic with some of them being arrested. However, on early Monday, there had been an escalation after a protester posted on TikTok that gardaí were standing nearby to the renovation site at 3:51 AM. By 5 AM, security guards arrived and a JCB digger was demolishing the shacks and by 8AM, social media posts were made to gather protesters to the scene. Members of the far-right and gangland criminals are said to have incited the violence.

Taoiseach Simon Harris condemned the violence in Coolock, describing it as ‘pure thuggery’, and Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said on X (formerly Twitter) that the “thuggish criminal behaviour” has no place in society.

Concrete barriers, three metres high, have now been placed to prevent entry into the Crown Paints factory and gardaí are currently in the area as of Tuesday. Fifteen of the protesters arrested were released on a €300 bail on the condition that they stay away from the former Crowns Paints factory on Malahide Road and do not engage in protests or anti-social behaviour. They are due to appear in court again on September 18, 2024.

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